A stifling gasped escaped Lilo's mouth as he awoke, with a flood of emotions still raging in his chest from the revealing dream he just witnessed.
His physical body felt groggy and slow, but his mind was racing; still attempting to digest all the information he was trying to process.
He clutched his chest and looked down at his arms, making sure they were still all intact.
Although he was only witnessing the dream, over the course of the last three days, he had acclimated to being within Soda's body; identifying as if it were his own now.
Witnessing himself get his arms severed and buried alive was most definitely traumatizing.
The small solitary confinement cell felt... comforting, compared to the nightmare he just endured.
But then again... it also made Lilo feel claustrophobic; reminding him of the ominous feeling of having the earth close in around you as your loved ones buried your still conscious body.
He didn't know how to feel, and his head was swirling with questions... questions that only one other soul would have the answers to.
Lilo's frantic eyes darted around the room and his eyes found the person he was searching for.
Soda's ghostly figure was in the corner of the cell, clutching his knees to his chest, weeping uncontrollably... just as he was when Lilo first found him in his soul when being reincarnated.
Lilo snapped out of his own confused state and put into perspective what Soda just had to go through.
That little child had to relive the most traumatic moment of his life... and was forced to be vulnerable with a stranger that had ignored his pleas to not show mercy to the most vile person in their life.
The person in question, was Chalant. The sinister older brother who had put his demise into motion all over petty jealousy.
Lilo had shown kindness and empathy for this evil character... all because he was ignorant and not willing to trust Soda.
He had no right to violate the desires of a soul that once owned his body. If seen from Soda's perspective, his life was stolen from him by a stranger...
Lilo felt unworthy in his own skin. This body was not his to claim.
He loathed having been placed in this position to be able to cause such atrocities to such a pure and innocent soul such as Soda's.
"I'm sorry." Lilo's broken voice echoed in the small empty cell.
Soda wiped away his tears, his breath rising and falling from the hardy cry he just had.
Soda looked up at Lilo and their eyes locked. They had the same eyes, but within Soda's ghostly eyes, Lilo could see himself.
His true self. The old body he once had. A handsome, arrogant prick, with a Greek physique, a chiseled face, and tantalizing aged features.
Soda stood up and slowly extended a closed fist to his own body which was being inhabited by this broken stranger.
"Stop the bullshit. I may look young to you, but I assure you I am twice the man you are." A middle finger slowly unfurled from Soda's fist.
"The hell?! You don't know me..." Lilo retorted.
"Oh, I know plenty." Soda claimed.
"I know that you act brave when you face an opponent, but are a spineless coward when facing yourself. I know that your biggest opponent is your own insecurities. I know that little self loathing voice in your head intimately Mr Lilo Holloway, and I know that under that menacing manly figure is the broken child that you can't mend." Soda's words cut into Lilo's soul like a bullet.
"Damn." Lilo's broken voice muttered.
"Yeah. Damn right. Let's keep one thing straight bitch. I'm the man and you're the kid in this relationship. I wear the pants, you wear the skin, but I'll always wear the burden of keeping us both alive." Soda floated closer to Lilo's face, invading the space between them.
"Both of us might want different things, but you and I both need to survive. If you want that to be a reality, heed my words." Soda undid his middle finger and outstretched his hand for a shake.
'I've been doing okay keeping myself alive... To be honest, I kinda got us in a better position by getting us placed as a herder instead of a craver. If I would have listened to your dumbass we would-'
"Oh please, shut the fuck up. All I'm saying is, we should at least try to coexist and work together if we want to increase our chances of thriving here." Soda rolled his eyes.
Lilo pondered for a brief moment and then shrugged.
"Agreed." Lilo shook Soda's ghostly transparent hand for a second time... but this time, it was a genuine, real, and empathic agreement between two souls trapped in this cursed predicament.
A splitting headache made Lilo jolt amid their cordial interaction.
'Gah dayummmmm, that hurts.'
"You're malnourished. Everything you consumed you puked yesterday. It has roughly been three days since you've properly eaten because you were too afraid to eat any of the foods the guards sent you ever since you threw up from your own cooking."
'Yeahhh but.... why did I throw up? What's so bad about wanting to eat anything other than raw foods?'
"While it may not be normal in your world. Food here is sacred, not only because of what they provide but because where they come from. Foods, excluding the devil fruit (obviously), are a gift to us from the gods."
"They created each unique food with a purpose, and there is a power system in place within our digestive system that can extract abilities from each respective food."
"Fruits for example, are a stimulant energy source. Berries can be used to prolong your endurance and even replenish your fatigued muscles."
"Roots are used to fuel your chi. Nuts are used to improve cognitive function. Grains are used to mend things."
"Every category and sub category of food serves a unique purpose; they are each incredibly potent and powerful. They must be treated with reverence and respect due to this."
"Heating, mixing, and cutting up these foods can be akin to alchemy. Which is why cooking is forbidden to mundane people. The only people educated enough to know how to cook safely are the kite riders."
"They cook all kinds of concoctions and invent some of the best mixtures of super foods to create bizarre and unique power ups."
"If done without care though, cooking food can be incredibly dangerous and even lethal."
Lilo was eating the cooked oats with blueberries and walnuts that the gatekeepers had brought to him while Soda was explaining the food system to him.
Digesting the potent power food while also digesting all this information, sort of worked hand in hand.
The food he was consuming was not only satiating his hunger but breathing life into areas of his bodily functions that he had not felt stimulated before; at least not to this degree.
The nuts were making his mind sharp, allowing it to intake information with precision and detail.
The oats helped fade his scars from his battle with Pop.
The berries made his whole body feel more vigilant and full of invigorating energy.
It was simply supernatural, at least to Lilo. To Soda, this was a natural occurrence when eating. It was a fundamental truth about his world.
As Lilo scraped up his last bit of oatmeal, he pondered being a cook for a minute.
'Wait... so the kite riders are the only cooks in this entire spire?'
"Every spire has its own unique culture and method of governing, but the fundamental jobs don't vary too much. It seems that when regarding cooks, kite riders still remain to fill that role here."
'How does one... become one?'
"Oh please, having been placed as a herder was already a nearly impossibly task while still being a craver. Being a kite rider is even rarer. It's two whole class structures up the status ladder."
"Kite riders are second only to Fiens and Turners are just below them. Just be content with where you are."
Lilo sulked for a brief moment, grieving his misfortune of not having the pleasure of cooking delicious foods.
Although most things were raw here, the food surprisingly did taste good; and for what it was able to provide, Lilo couldn't complain.
Now that his hunger was satiated, his mind was left to wander and he had a lot to be curious about. Particularly in relation to the dream.
'Why... did your dad switched sides so quickly? I thought he said he would make you king regardless of being a craver or not?'
"As soon as my mother knew, it was game over. Both Chalant and dad knew that. That's why dad warned to not tell her. Her resentment for craver's was much greater than that of her love for her son."
'Why did Chalant lie to us when we first reunited?'
"I think he either suspects we lost our memories... or he knows that someone else is inhabiting my body."
'How were they able to fight an ongoing war for years without relenting to exhaustion? That's just not humanly possible.'
"That would be due to our super foods."
Lilo marveled at the capabilities of such a basic concept of super foods.
Merely consuming them could make humans turn into beings akin to gods.